


Golden Slumbers

by Rhohemian_Bapsody



Category: Queen (Band)
Genre: Afterlife, Falling In Love, M/M, Soulmates, Stubborn Men, past death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:40:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29447937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhohemian_Bapsody/pseuds/Rhohemian_Bapsody
Summary: Brian and John are meant to be.  However, they never met earthside.  What will happen when they meet in the afterlife and are forced to spend eternity with one another?
Relationships: John Deacon/Brian May
Comments: 12
Kudos: 17
Collections: Meant To Be: The Soulmate Challenge





	Golden Slumbers

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So this is my contribution to the soulmate challenge! I want to thank @PumpkinLily for beta-ing and I would also like to thank @grahamcockroach for illustrating! I'll embed their work in the text :) I hope you enjoy!  
> Here are the works of art!
> 
> https://grahamcockroach.tumblr.com/post/643131158247391232/art-from-a-fic-collab-with-rhohemian-bapsody-and
> 
> https://grahamcockroach.tumblr.com/post/643131223274930176/art-from-my-fic-collab-with-rhohemian-bapsody-and

The last thing John remembered before he woke up was a loud crashing sound and a crushing pain in his chest. 

When he woke up, he was sure that the pain and crashing sound had been a bad dream. He was going to wake up next to his beautiful wife and then go downstairs and make breakfast for their kids. The only things John felt when he woke up were fear and confusion. This was not his house, and the person lying next to him was not this wife! He scrambled out of bed and to the other side of the room. Where was he? Was he dead? Surely, if he were dead, he would be with Veronica. She was his soulmate, no doubt about it. They’d been together since they were young and had children of their own. They got along famously as long as they’d known each other, only having fought a couple of times in all of their years together. 

As his mind raced, the figure in the bed began to move and then sat up. The fact that it wasn’t a woman was jarring, almost as jarring as the fact that Veronica was not his soulmate. The man in the bed looked confused as well, almost as though the same thoughts were going through his head. “Shit,” the man murmured, then put his hands over his face. 

“Sorry, but who the hell are you?” John asked once he was able to speak again.

“I’m Brian,” the man, Brian, told him. “I think we’re dead, mate.”   
  
John shook his head. “No, I must have gone home with you from the pub last night. I was pretty drunk, must have thought you were a lady. Yeah, all I did was cheat on my wife. I need to go home and apologize to her!” He scrambled up to his feet and hurried out of the room and down to the front door. He yanked at the handle, only to find that it was futile. The door wouldn’t open. 

Brian followed John downstairs and watched him struggle with the door. “There’s one problem with your theory, man--”

“John.”

“--John. It’s that I wasn’t at a pub last night. I was at home, with my wife. Dying.” He paused for a moment, then took a deep breath. “Because I had pancreatic cancer. We’re dead. Accept it.”

“I can’t be dead! I have kids at home-- I need to take care of them! My youngest is only a year now; I can’t miss him growing up!” John yanked at the door one more time before collapsing to the ground in a heap. “Fuck!”   
  


Brian gave him a sympathetic look. “You said you got pretty drunk last night, right?” He asked, then sat down on the floor next to him. “What do you remember before waking up here?” 

John paused for a little while as he tried to recount the day earlier. “Well… I got into a fight with my wife earlier in the afternoon, then I went to the pub with a couple of mates and had a few drinks. Then I felt guilty about getting into a fight with my wife and I got into the car and headed home. In hindsight, that was probably pretty stupid. I was kinda drunk when I left. Anyway, the very last thing I remember was a loud crash and a crushing pain in my chest--shit.” he put his head in his hands and closed his eyes. “I died in a fucking car accident, didn’t I?”

Brian nodded. “Sounds like it.” 

Dramatically, John groaned and rubbed his hands over his eyes. “That’s so fucking annoying.”

“I mean, I guess so. If you had something worth living for. Sounds like you did, your wife and kids. But honestly? I kind of don’t mind being dead. Being alive hurt so much. It was just awful. Towards the end, I was hoping I wouldn’t wake up.” He shook his head. “I guess the worst part is finding out my wife wasn’t my soulmate.”

John looked up at Brian and sighed. “There’s no way you’re my soulmate,” he said. “I’m straight. I am in love with a woman. She’s my soulmate. This is all just one big misunderstanding.”

“John, I’m not sure that’s the case. I think this is something that doesn’t get messed up like that,” Brian responded. “You can deny it all you want, but we’re stuck together. Might as well make the best of it.”

“Fine, but I’m not going to enjoy this,” John responded, then got up. “I need a smoke.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and dug around for his pack of cigarettes, pulled one out, and lit it up. Normally, he’d smoke outside. He had (past tense, he supposed) kids to worry about. But now, he figured it didn’t matter, his kids weren’t around, and both he and Brian were dead. 

Brian groaned when John lit his cigarette and got up. “You have to do this right here? Don’t you know how disgusting that is?” 

John rolled his eyes. “God, you’re a nag,” he murmured on the exhale, then ashed into the ashtray that appeared next to him. “It’s not like it matters. We’re both dead. It’s not going to kill either of us again.”

“That doesn’t mean it smells nice. Quite the opposite, in fact. Could you  _ please _ put it out?”

“No, I don’t think I will,” John responded, then blew a plume of smoke towards Brian.

Brain waved the smoke away and rolled his eyes. “God, I cannot believe you’re my soulmate. You’re insufferable.”

“Takes one to know one,  _ honey _ .” He snubbed out the cigarette and deposited the butt into the tray. 

“Oh, don’t ‘honey’ me!” Brian growled, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to explore, see what this place is like. Feel free not to follow me.”

John stretched out on the floor and put his hands underneath his head. “Fine by me,” he responded as Brian plodded off. For a brief moment, he wished that he had a book to read and a comfortable chair to sit in. He looked over, only to see his favorite book sitting next to him and a chair waiting for him in the next room over. Picking up the book, John pulled himself back to his feet and went to make himself comfortable in the chair.  _ Maybe,  _ he thought,  _ being dead isn’t so bad after all.  _ Then he thought of Brian again. That would certainly make things more difficult, especially if Brian couldn’t handle the smell of cigarette smoke. At least Veronica didn’t complain when he came in reeking of tobacco. Oh, Veronica. How he wished he had been able to say goodbye to her. Instead, the last words they’d exchanged were a set of angry “fuck you”’s. He resented that fact deeply. 

As he tried to read the book, John found himself unable to absorb any of the words on the page. He could scarcely stop thinking about his wife and family he’d left behind. He hated that he’d never get to see his children grow up-- it broke his heart. 

He continued to stare at the pages, only looking up when he heard footsteps again. “What did you find?” 

Brian shrugged. “This place is a lot bigger than I thought, so… there’s another bedroom, I’ll just sleep in there until further notice.”

“Indefinitely,” John responded, then set the book down on the coffee table in front of him. “I might have slept with a stranger when I was younger, but I’m not sleeping with a stranger when I’m in my forties.”

“Jesus Christ. I’m not asking you to have sex with me, John. I’m just as shocked as you are that my soulmate is a man. All I’m saying is that if it’s just the two of us from now on, we might get lonely and need to be around someone, to have someone to hold at night.”

John rolled his eyes. “We can spend time together during the day. And it’s not like we’ll really need to sleep if we’re dead, you know. Not like a lack of sleep can kill us again.”

“Whatever, you know what I meant.” Brian shook his head. “I’m going to get my room set up. Have fun doing whatever it was that you were doing.”

******

As the days wore on (was it days or years? He really wasn’t sure anymore), John felt himself growing more and more used to Brian’s presence. That didn’t necessarily mean that he enjoyed Brian’s company, but he wasn’t upset by it anymore. 

From time to time, they’d hang out. That mostly involved reading in the same room as one another. Occasionally, they’d talk. But their conversations were brief, and they didn’t really talk about all that much. Until one evening (John assumed it was the evening, they’d been able to see a lovely sunset out of the back window), when Brian took it upon himself to bring up the topic of their lives.

“You said before you had kids, did you?” He asked, not looking up from his crossword puzzle.

John answered with a hum. “Yeah, I had six. Five boys and a girl.”

Brian nodded. “Two girls and a boy,” he responded. “I miss them.”

“Yeah, I miss mine too. I hate that my wife has to raise them by herself. Though I’m sure she’s moved on by now.”

“Deaky, she’s probably dead by now. We’ve been dead for several decades now.” 

John rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

Brian ignored him. “I’m just sad I never got to see my kids grow up. I’m sure you feel the same way, right?”

“I-- yeah,” John answered as he set his book down. “But at least your kids knew your time was coming. Mine didn’t have that closure. I’d give anything to have said goodbye to them.”

“I didn’t think about it that way,” Brian murmured. “I guess you’re right. I saw them the night before I died. I was glad to see them, but I just remember that everything hurt. I hated that they had to see me like that.” 

John just looked at Brian for a moment. The sadness on his face made John feel a bit sad himself. It was clear that Brian loved his kids, and he was sure that he missed them. John certainly missed his own. 

“I got in a fight with my wife the night I died,” he said. “The last memory my kids have of me is of me yelling and angry.” He sighed. “I regret that they saw me like that. My oldest was trying to mediate the fight. It shouldn’t have fallen to him.” Why was he saying this to Brian? They barely knew each other, even though they’d been living together for decades, apparently. 

Brian gave John an almost apologetic look. “That’s no good, is it?” He put his hand on John’s hand. It did not escape John that this was the first time they’d touched. But it was a vulnerable moment, and they were soulmates, apparently.

John shook his head. “And my youngest doesn’t even have a memory of me. He was only a year old when I died.” 

“Terribly young. I’m sure your wife told him about you, though. How long were you two together?”

“Over twenty-five years. She was the love of my life.” John smiled wistfully. “The absolute best.”

“And you thought she was your soulmate, didn’t you?” 

From the look on Brian’s face, John could tell that he felt at least a little bit guilty for something. Deciding to change the subject, John asked, “what’s the look for?”

Brian just shrugged. “I mean… You were expecting to spend eternity with your wife. Now you’re stuck with me, someone who you didn’t know when you were alive.”

“Truth be told, Brian, you’re pretty good company,” John told him. That seemed to make Brian feel a bit better. “I’m definitely used to you now.”

“Thanks. I’m used to you, too.”

The two went on like that, just spending time with one another and occasionally having soul-baring conversations. It finally felt like they were falling into a nice, positive normal. John wouldn’t say that he loved Brian, but he certainly liked having him around. They did have their share of arguments, and they certainly butted heads, but John didn’t mind too much. It was all part of living with someone, he figured. 

***    
  
In the middle of the night one night (John assumed it was night--it was dark outside and he could see the stars and the moon. Even after what he was sure was nearly a century in the afterlife, he was still not sure how time worked there), he found himself unable to sleep. Even though he knew he didn’t need to sleep because he was dead, he still liked to do it and he knew that Brian did, too. It just felt normal to sleep at the end of what seemed to be a day. 

John laid in his bed for what felt like hours, staring at the ceiling. He finally decided to get up and make himself some chamomile tea. Being dead had its perks, the house they lived in in the afterlife always had everything they needed. 

When he found himself in the kitchen, he saw Brian there as well. “Couldn’t sleep?” He asked.

Brian nodded, looking into his cup. “I was thinking about Anita,” he admitted. “I know she’s dead now, but I just wonder where she is and who she’s with.”

John made himself some tea and sat across from Brian as it steeped. “I wonder that about Veronica, too. More than anything, I hope she’s happy.”

“Yeah… I hope the same for Anita.” His fingers rubbed over the sides of the mug. “It bothered me before, but it’s really been bothering me today.”

“I can tell.” John pulled the tea bag from his mug and set it on the table. “Do you need a distraction?”

Brian hesitated for a moment. “That might be nice, actually,” he answered.

John got up and led Brian to the lounge. He went over to their ever-growing record collection and pulled out the one he recalled Brian mentioning that was his favorite. 

“Y’know, we give each other a lot of shit. But you’re actually pretty great, Deaky,” Brian commented when John started spinning the record.

“Yeah, well… I know how you feel right now. I’ve been feeling this way for the entire time we’ve been here,” John told him. “It doesn’t get easier, but at least we have each other.”

Brian answered with a soft hum. “Yeah, could be a lot worse, I guess,” he agreed. He furrowed his brow when John came over and pulled him up to his feet. “What are you doing?”

“We’re going to dance,” he told Brian. “Come on, it’ll help take your mind off of things and make you feel better.” 

Almost hesitantly, Brian followed John to the middle of the room. It was a relatively slow song, so John put his hands on Brian’s waist and Brian put his on John’s shoulders. “God, I feel like some kid at a school dance,” he joked.

John couldn’t help but laugh at that. “I guess I do too,” he agreed as the two of them started to sway slowly from side to side.    
  
With each song, he felt their bodies draw closer and closer together until their fronts were touching. John was sure it would have been uncomfortable, but it just wasn’t. It felt right, actually. He leaned his head on Brian’s shoulder as the two of them danced the album away. It didn’t seem that Brian minded much either. If John didn’t know better, he would assume that Brian was in a better mood than he had been before. And to be honest, it felt nice dancing with him. 

Against his better judgment, John pulled away slightly and leaned in and pressed his lips to Brian’s. Much to his surprise, Brian didn’t pull away. He could feel the electricity surging between their lips. Maybe they really were meant to be after all.

It was a little while before Brian pulled away. “What was that for?”

John shrugged. “It just felt right, I think,” he answered as he squeezed Brian’s hips gently. “Was it okay with you?”

Brian nodded. “Perfectly fine.”

When the record was over, John hesitantly let go of Brian and put on his own favorite record, something a bit more upbeat. 

Brian scoffed. “Disco? Seriously?” 

“What? It’s fun music, you coward.” John elbowed Brian in the ribs gently, then started bopping along to the music. 

Brian rolled his eyes and started bopping along reluctantly. The look on his face told John that even though Brian was pretending like he wasn’t enjoying himself, he was having a bit of fun with it. 

The pair danced to everything from techno to proper waltz music for hours on end. By the time it seemed as though the sun rose, the two of them had danced themselves to exhaustion. 

Brian flopped down on the sofa and grabbed John’s arm, firmly pulling him down with him as well. “That was lovely. Thanks, Deaky.” He kissed John’s cheek, then leaned his head on his chest.

John sighed happily, then put his arm around Brian and kissed the top of his head, among the mess of curls that were there. “My pleasure,” he responded. 

He knew Brian didn’t hear him when he heard a soft snort come from his soulmate. It seemed as though Brian had fallen asleep on top of him, which he didn’t mind one bit. It was sweet. For some reason, he found himself a lot less bothered about the fact that Veronica wasn’t his soulmate. He knew that Brian would never be able to fully replace the mother of his children, but he was pretty sure he could get used to this being his eternity.


End file.
